AFTER MORE THAN 35 YEARS LIVING ON THE WEST COAST and pouring all of his musical energy into a single band, Slayer co-founder and guitarist Kerry King is now in a different place — literally. In 2020, King and his wife Ayesha packed up their stuff and relocated to Tribeca in New York City.
“My wife is from here,” says King from the back table of the New York Tex Mex restaurant and bar Cowgirl SeaHorse in Lower Manhattan.
“She had a 20-year exile to the West Coast with me, so now it’s my turn. But I like it here, and it was good timing because we moved here during the pandemic, so I got way more for my money than I should have. I would’ve bought two places had I known that. The places in my building have gone up exponentially since then.”
Of course, moving to New York isn’t the only major change in King’s life. After wrapping up their farewell tour in 2019, Slayer, the band King co-founded in 1981, was gone. Maybe to minimize the mourning process, King formed a new band just months later and started over. And he has started over. To all intents and purposes, Slayer’s final lineup (if not their sound) is but a blip on King’s radar. Granted, it’s a big blip, and one that will likely generate more increased valuation than his Manhattan apartment when Slayer play three scheduled festival reunion shows later this year. Even so, the band’s last-standing songwriter will spend the vast majority of the foreseeable future not with Slayer, but playing live and recording new music with his new band, entitled Kerry King.
Their debut record, From Hell I Rise, is a savage gut-punch of instantly recognizable riffs, jackhammer beats and disarmingly familiar vocals. In other words, fans of Slayer’s early classics Reign in Blood, South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss will find plenty to love in the tunes, tones and delivery of King’s new album. Though he’s switched from B.C. Rich to Dean Guitars (see p69), not much else has changed — only the names of half the players.
From Hell I Rise is flush with rapid-fire thrash rhythms, chromatic guitar riffs and blazing leads, with songs that vary in tone from eerie and atmospheric to savage and torrential. “Diablo/Where I Rise” is driven by quick chord changes in the verse and an elongated riff for the chorus. Then it bursts into a galloping midsection that’s bound to cause havoc in the mosh pit. “Idle Hands” is an off-kilter thrash-fest that cuts and chugs like a train with razor-sharp wheels. And “Crucifixation” sounds like hardcore-influenced Slayer songs (“Jesus Saves,” “Disciple”) crossed with the harmonized, minor-key savagery of some of the band’s slower, eerier material (“Dead Skin Mask”).
“I call ‘Crucifixation’ the money shot ’cause it’s just so relentless,” King says with a smile. “To me, it sounds like big-time Eighties thrash. It goes from sheer fury to this big, heavy drum
